THE WEIRDER, THE BETTER!

Her 500 pairs of shoes take up a whole room in her house – and she’s adding more quirky footwear all the time

- CARLA COETZEE

DECISIONS, decisions. Will today be Cinderella or Snow White? Buzz Lightyear or Star Wars? Or perhaps Beauty and the Beast? These are the daily dilemmas that keep Kari Walbert on her toes.

Because when it comes to shoes, this special-needs teacher is in a heel lot of trouble – there are just so many beauties she could choose to wear.

Kari owns about 500 pairs of footwear, each one lovingly catalogued on her Pinterest page according to colour combinations.

“Otherwise I forget which shoes I own,” she tells us from her home in Eaton, Penn sylvania in the US.

YOU tracked the 44-year-old down after pictures of her quirky footwear collection started popping up on the internet – and here she is, chatting to us from the other side of the world, showing us around her collection of feathers and flowers, teacups and toecaps.

Shoes are her sole passion, the thing that gets her heart flip-flopping with joy and her toes tapping with delight – a veritable feat for the feet.

Think Alice in Wonderland and Hello Kitty, unicorn heels and wedges decorated with hot-rod racing car flames.

And when she feels in the mood for an island holiday, she slips into a pair that look like Hawaiian dancers.

“I love collecting shoes. But it’s not just about how many I own or the brands – it’s a case of the weirder, the better,” she says.

So much fancy footwear takes proper organising so Kari keeps all the shoes in their original boxes to save space.

“I take a picture of the pair and paste it on the outside of the box so I can easily find it,” she explains.